Lenzburg

The 18th of July 1470 (or was it 2012?), the Company of Saynt George took over a well known castle, Lenzburg. This time we portrayed a Bernese troop coming to reinforce the power of the bailiff Jörg Friburger.

We experimented once again the flying canon, praying Saint George for his intercession in order that nothing happens to Barbara, which was lifted by the half modern crane. Led by our new Quarter Master, Konrad, and with the help of a few veterans, the camp was quickly set up.

On Thursday, the wake up was rang a bit after six in the morning in order to listen to the daily prayer. The two first days were quite calm in regards to the amount of public. The camp dynamic slowly set up, we had regular animation schedules for the museum. The men were quite tired, the Head of the Kitchen, Christian was following a very strict regime so we respected scrupulously Friday as a fast day.

But, on Saturday the food became richer again and the moral soared again to be at the level of the best Company camps. It was a good thing because, since then, we were besieged by hordes of visitors arriving in waves in our courtyard. (The advertisement for us during the Tagesschau at 19:30 on Thursday was probably responsible for this!) The museum counted 10'505 visitors and that is a big number for a four days event!

Each afternoon, the men had to set up the tent for the trial of Käthi Pfisterin, accused of having murdered her own baby. The public was so receptive (or Lea was playing so well) that they even threw stones at her! (Well, it were tiny little stones, but though!).

The Trial of Käthi Pfisterin at Lenzburg (Photo by Andrea Schläfli)

Between two canon or handguns salves and the halberd drills given in a more or less approximate Swiss German, Wolfgang, even if he had already organized the trial, was doing fencing demonstrations instead of having breaks. In the same time, the kitchen was cooking us incredibly delicious doughnuts coated with golden honey. On Saturday evening Andy promised us an incredible story, otherwise he would eat his own hat. He was lucky because the story was so good.

Andy (Photo by Andrea Schläfli)

The most risky time for the visitors was probably the Chicken Game, consisting in two teams trying to lead their champion, a blinded man armed with a stick, so he will crush an egg lying on the ground. I was barely able to save a little girl from the massacre!

The women of the Company had their share of glory, participating in several drills, as promised by the advertising poster of the museum. They were also able to practice shooting with crossbows and handguns, a chance the halberdiers did not get.

Saint George must have been watching over us carefully because he lavished us with the presence of our former Captain John Richards, who appeared during our last muster, just before we set down an almost perfectly dried camp. Our Saint protected us also from big gargoyle overlooking our kitchen tent and which fell down the day after we left!